973.7L63 RJ15a LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, PRES . U.S. ABRAHAM LINCOLN said: July, 1834 to November 7, 1860... LINC( >LN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY Abraham Lincoln Said: July, 1834, to November 7, i860 "The pyramids in time may sink be- neath the desert sands, the fame of the Caesars vanish in the darkness of obliv- ion, but surely as long as the race en- dures it will behold in the familiar form of the martyred son — strange, gaunt, si- lent, colossal, with agony written in the lines of his kindly face and love glow- ing in his wistful eyes — the saddest, gentlest and most pathetic figure in all human history." George M. Bailey 1923 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnsaOlinc "Fellow Citizens, I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the legislature. My politics are short and sweet like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a National Bank. I am in favor of the Internal Improvement system and a high Protective Tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected I shall be thank- ful: if not it will be all the same." Lincoln's first speech made at Papsville, Illinois, in July, 1830. Lincoln was then 21 years of age. I very man is said to have his peculiar am- bition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of be- ing truly esteemed of my fellow men. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed. I am young and unknown to many of you. I was born and have ever re- mained in the most humble walks of life. My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of this county, and if elected they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my labor to compensate. Rut if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined." Political handbill to the people of Sangamon County, March 9, 1832. "If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a Nation of free men, we must live through all time, or die by suicide/' Springfield, 111., January 27, 1837. "I have a character to defend as well as Gen- eral James Adams but I disdain to whine about it as he does." To Editor of Sangamon County Journal, September 9, 1837. "THE PERPETUATION OF OUR POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS" "Why suppose danger to our political insti- tutions ? Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years ? And why may we not for fifty times as long? We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous. This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already appropriated, but new reapers will arrive. It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us, and when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion, as others have clone before them. It scorns to tread in i\\c footsteps of any predeces- sor however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction. Is it unreasonable then, that some man with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at sometime spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other to successively frustrate his design. Distinction will be his paramount object and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so acquire it by doing good as harm, yet that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up he would set boldly to the task of pulling down." Excerpts from an address delivered by Abraham Lincoln before the young man's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838. "I made a point of honor and conscience of all things to stick to my word, especially if others had been induced to act upon it." To Mrs. O. M. Browning, April, 1838. 6 "I know that the volcano at Washington aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of po- litical corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bid- ding fair to leave unscathed no green spot of living thing; while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the waves of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with the hope- lessness of their effort/ ' Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, December 20, 1839. "If ever I felt the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly un- worthy of its almighty architect, it is when I contemplate the course of my Country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up bold- ly and alone, and hurling defiance at her vic- torious oppressors. Here, without contemplat- ing consequences, before high heaven and the face of the world I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty and my love." Springfield, December 20, 1839. I am now the most miserable man living. If what I fed were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forbodc I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me." Letter to John T. Stuart, January 23, 184L "Tell your mother that I have not got her present — an Oxford Bible with me, but I in- tend to read it regularly when I return home. I doubt not that it is really as she says, the best cure for the blues, could one but take it accord- ing to the truth." Letter to Mary Speed, September 27, 18-41. "I am so poor and make so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a month of idle- ness as much as I gain in a year's sowing." Letter to Joshua F. Speed, July 4, 1842. "As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means de- voured by interest, and next, no one left to bor- row from, so must it be with a government." Whig Circular, March 4, 1843. "It would astonish, if not amuse, the older citizens, to learn that I — a stranger, friendless, uneducated penniless boy, working on a flat- boat at $10.00 per month, have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth and aristocratic family distinction." Letter to M. M. Morris, March 26, 1843. "Perhaps you have forgotten me. Don't you remember a long dark fellow who rode on horseback with you from Tremont to Spring- field nearly ten years ago, swimming our horses over the Mackinaw on the trip? Well, I am the same old fellow yet." To Josephus Hewett, February 13, 1848. "Your letter of the 29th January was re- ceived last night. Being exclusively a constitu- tional argument, I wish to submit some reflec- tions upon it in the same spirit of kindness that I know actuates you. Let me first state what I understand to be your position. It is that if it shall become necessary to repel invasion, the President may, without violation of the Consti- tution, cross the line and invade the territory of another country, and that whether such neces- sity exists in any given case the President is the sole judge. "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If today he should chose to say he thinks it neces- sary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.' "The provisions of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress was dictat- ed, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impover- ishing their people in wars, pretending general- ly, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppres- 10 sions, and they resolved to so frame the Consti- tution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood/ ' Letter to William Herndon, February 15, 1848. "To thus transfer legislation — from Congress to President, by the abuse of the veto power — is clearly to take it from those who understand with minuteness the interests of the people and give it to one who does not and cannot so well understand it." Speech h CongresSj July 27> 1848- "Alas! who can realize that Henry Clay is dead! Who can realize that never again that majestic form shall rise in the Council-Cham- bers of his Country to beat back the storms of anarchy which may threaten, or pour the oil of peace upon the troubled billows as they rage and menace around? Who can realize, that the workings of that mighty mind have ceased — that the mighty sweep of that graceful arm will be felt no more, and the magic of that eloquent tongue is hushed forever." Eulogy of Henry Clay, delivered in the State House, Springfield, Illinois, July 6, 1852. 11 "My distinguished friend, Douglas, says it is an insult to the emigrant to Kansas and Ne- braska to suppose that they are not able to ern themselves. We must not slur over an argument of this kind because it happens to tickle the ear. It must be met and answered. I admit the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, but I deny his right to govern any other person without that person's consent." Springfield, Illinois, October 4, 1854. "According to our ancient faith, the just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed. Now the relation of master and slave is, Pro tanto, a total violation of this principle. The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself." Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. "Near eighty years ago we began by declar- ing that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave 12 others is a sacred right of self government. These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon." Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. "I insist that if there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people never to intrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liber- ties and institutions." Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. "Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong." Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. "What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. I say that is the leading prin- ciple, the sheet anchor of American republican- ism. Our Declaration of Independence says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- able rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure 13 these rights, governments are instituted Among men, 1)1 RIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOV- ERNED." Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. "This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the mon- strous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it be- cause it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticizing the Dec- laration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self- interest." Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. "Before proceeding, let me say that I think I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situa- tion. If slavery did not now exist among them, 14 they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and South. Doubtless there are individuals on both sides who would not hold slaves under any circum- stances, and others who would gladly introduce slavery anew if it were out of existence. We know that some Southern men do free their slaves, go North and become tip- top abolition- ists, while some Northern ones go South and become most cruel slave-masters/' Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. "And as this subject is no other than part and parcel of the larger general question of domestic slavery, I wish to make and to keep the distinction between the existing institution and the extension of it so broad and so clear that no honest man can misunderstand me, and no dishonest one successfuly misrepresent me." Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. "I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, 15 \vc began by declaring that all men arc created equal. We now practically read it: 'All men arc created equal, except negroes.' "When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read, 'all men are created equal, except Negroes, Catholics and Foreigners.' When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some Country where they make no pretense of lov- ing liberty — to Russia, for instance where des- potism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy." Letter to Joshua Speed, August 2-f, 1855. "Biographies as generally written are not only misleading but false. I've wondered why book publishers don't have blank biographies on their shelves, always ready for an emer- gency, so that if a man happens to die, his heirs or his friends, if they wish to perpetuate his memory, can purchase one already written but with blanks. These blanks they can at their pleasure, fill up with rosy sentences full of high-sounding praise. In most instances they commemorate a lie, and cheat posterity out of the truth." Letter to W. H. Herndon, 1856. L6 "We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we can- not." Speech, Bloomington, May 29, 1856. "I think the authors of that notable instru- ment (Declaration of Independence) intended to include all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social capaci- ty. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what respects they did consider all men created equal — equal with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. " Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857. "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure perma- nently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." House divided Speech, Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858. 17 "If we Could first know where \vc are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that agitation has not ceased, but has constantly augmented." Springfield, Illinois, June 1", 1858. "Friends, I have thought about this matter a great deal, have weighed the question well from all corners, and am thoroughly convinced the time has come when it should be uttered; and if it must be that I must go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to truth, — die in the advocacy of what is right and just." "This nation cannot live on injustice. A House divided against itself cannot stand, I say again and again." (Remarks defending his speech, June 17, 1858: "A House Divided against itself," etc.) 18 "HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF" — Importance of Speech "If I had to draw a pen across my record, and erase my whole life from sight, and I had one poor gift or choice left as to what I save from the wreck, I should choose that speech and leave it to the world unerased." Statement, July 6, 1858. "I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858. "Senator Douglas is of world wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party have been looking upon him as certainly, at no dis- tant day, to be President of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, postoffices, land offices, marshalships and for- eign missions bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands ... on the contrary, no- 19 body has ever expected me to he President. On my poor, lean, lank face nohody has ever seen that any cabbage were sprouting out." Springfield, Illinois, July 17, 1858. "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Speech, Clinton, Illinois, September 8, 1858. "I have always wanted to deal with everyone I meet candidly and honestly. If I have made any assertion not warranted by facts, and it is pointed out to me, I will withdraw it cheer- fully." Debate, Charleston, September 18, 1858. "It really hurts me very much to suppose that I have wronged anybody on earth." Debate, Quincy, Illinois, October 13, 1858. "I must in candor say I do not think myself fit for the Presidency. I certainly am flattered and gratified that some partial friends think of me in that connection." Letter to T. J. Pickett, April 16, 1859. 20 "It is bad to be poor. I shall go to the wall for bread and meat. If I neglect my business this year as well as last. ,, Letter to Hawkins Taylor, September 6, 1859. "It is said that an eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, 'And this, too, shall pass away! How much it expresses ! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!" Speech, Milwaukee, September 30, 1859. "The successful application of steam-power to farm work is a desideratum — especially a steam plow. It is not enough that a machine operated by steam will really plow. To be suc- cessful it must, all things considered, plow BETTER* than can be done with animal pow- er. It must do all the work as well, and CHEAP- ER*, or more RAPIDLY* so as to get through more perfectly in season, or in some way afford an advantage over plowing with animals, else it is no success/ ' Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 30, 1859. ♦NOTE : Abraham Lincoln, in reality coined the "Caterpillar" slogan. Better, Quicker, Cheaper. 21 "My parents were both bom in Virginia of undistinguished families — of second families perhaps I should say.'* Letter to J. W . Fell, December 20, 1859. "I was raised to farm work, which I con- tinued till I was twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk war; and I was elected a captain of volunteers — a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I ran for the Legislature the same year (1832) and was beaten — the only time I have been beaten by the people." Letter to J. W. Fell, inclosing auto- biography, December 20, 1859. "It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of me or my early life. It can all be condensed into a single sentence, and that sentence you will find in Gray's Elegy 'The short and simple annals of the poor.' That's my life and that's all you or anyone else can make out of it." Letter to J. L. Scripps, 18f>(). 22 "Human action can be modified to some ex- tent, but human nature cannot be changed." Cooper Union, New York, February 27, 1860. "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." Address at Cooper Institute, New York, February 27, 1860. "When one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his condition: he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor for his whole life. I want every man to have a chance — in which he can better his condition; when he may look forward and hope to be a hired laborer this year and the next, work for himself afterward and finally to hire men to work for him." Speech, New Haven, Conn., March 6, 1860. "I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don't believe in law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good. So while we do not pro- pose any war upon capital, we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich." Speech at New Haven, Conn., March 6, 1860. 23 While seated in the Journal office, Spring- field, 111., May 8, I860, he was handed a tele- gram which gave him the first news of his nomi- nation tor presidency. His first words were: "There's a little woman down at our house would like to hear this — I'll go down and tell llcr May 8, I860. "In the highest degree of perfection yet reached in applying the horse power to harvest- ing, fully nine-tenths of the power is expanded bv the animal in carrying himself and dragging the machine over the field, leaving certainly not more than one-tenth to be applied directly to the only end of the whole operation — the gath- ering in of the grain, and clipping the straw. What I have said of the harvesting is true in a greater or less degree of mowing, plowing, gathering in of crops generally, and indeed of almost all farm work." Speech at Springfield, Illinois, November 7, 1860. "I rejoice with you in the success which has so far attended the Republican cause, yet in all our rejoicing let us neither express nor cherish anv hard feelings toward any citizen who by his vote differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are broth- ers of a common Country and should dwell to- gether in bonds of fraternal feelings. " Springfield, Illinois, November 20, 1860. "If I live, I am coming back some time, and then we'll go right on practicing law, as if nothing had happened/ ' Letter to W. H. Herndon, February 10, 1861. "It is true that, while I hold myself without mock modesty the humblest of all the individ- uals who have ever been elected President of the United States, I yet have a more difficult task to perform than any of them has ever encountered. I deem that it is just to the Coun- try, to myself, to you, that I should see every- thing, hear everything, and have every light that can possibly be brought within my reach to aid me before I shall speak officially in order that, when I do speak, I may have the best pos- sible means of taking correct and true grounds." Speech to Legislature, Albany, New York, Feb. 18, 1861. "Away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger 25 members have ever seen — Wecms' 'Life of Washington.' I remember all the accounts there given of the battlefields and struggles for the liberties of the country; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these early impres- sions last longer than any others. I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that these men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing — that something even more than national independence; that some- thing that held out a great promise to all the people of the world for all time to come — I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Consti- tution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle." Address to the Senate of New Jersey, February 21, 1861. "In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed unless it is forced 2G upon the government. The government will not use force, unless force is used against it." Address, Philadelphia, February 22, 1861. "I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this confed- eracy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Dec- laration of Independence which gave liberty, to the world for all future time/' Independence Hall, Philadelphia, February 22, 1861. "I hope no one of the (Society of) Friends who originally settled here, or who lived here since that time, or who live here now, have been or is a more devoted lover of peace, harmony and concord than my humble self." Speech reply to Gov. Curtin, Harris- burg, Pa., February 22, 1861. "I have reached the City of Washington un- der circumstances considerably differing from those under which any other man has ever reached it. I am here for the purpose of taking an official position among the people, almost all of whom were politically opposed to me, and are yet opposed to me, as I suppose. I hope 27 that, if things shall go along as prosperously as I believe we all desire they may, I may have it in mv power to remove something of this misunderstanding." An Address to the Republican Association at Willard's Hotel, February 28, 1861. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow Coun- trymen, and not in mine, is the momentous is- sue of civil war — The government will not as- sail you. You can have no conflict, without be- ing yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "Preserve, protect and defend it." First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861. "I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though pas- sion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of mem- ory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth- stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861. 28 "Labor is prior to and independent of capi- tal. Capital is only the fruit of labor; and could not have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights which are as worthy of protection as any other rights/ ' First Annual Message, December 3, 1861. "I am in no boastful mood, I shall not do more than I can, but shall do all I can to save the government; which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealings/ ' Letter to Cutbert Bullett of New Orleans, July 28, 1862. "There are already too many weeping wid- ows in the United States. For God's sake, don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't do it." Reply to a General (1863) who insisted on the President signing the warrants for the execution of twenty-four deserters. "You know my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals of mercy; and if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that 29 the arm of man could perpetrate, I might for- give him on such an appeal; but the man who could go to Africa, and rob her of her children, and sell them into interminable bondage, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer that he can never receive a pardon at my Reply to Mr. Alley, who read a peti- tion for the man's pardon, 1863. "By the virtue of the power and for the pur- pose aforesaid, (in the preliminary proclama- tion of Sept. 12, 1862) I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves (in states and parts of states in rebellion) are and hencefor- ward shall be free and that the executive gov- ernment of the United States, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. Upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judg- ment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." Emancipation Proclamation, January* 1, 1863. "A fair examination of history has served to authorize a belief that the past actions and in- fluences of the United States were generally 50 regarded as having been beneficial toward man- kind — I have therefore reckoned upon the fore- bearance of nations." To Workers of Manchester, January 19, 1863. "If I be wrong on this question of constitu- tional power, my error lies in believing that cer- tain proceedings are constitutional when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety requires them, which would not be constitution- al when, in absence of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does not require them: in other words, that the Constitution is not in its appli- cation in all respects the same in cases of re- bellion or invasion involving the public safety, as it is in times of profound peace and public security. The Constitution itself makes the dis- tinction, and I can no more be persuaded that the government can constitutionally take no strong measures in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could not be law- fully taken in time of peace, than I can be per- suaded that a particular drug is not good medi- cine for a sick man because it can be shown to not be good food for a well one." Letter to Erastus Corning and Others, June 12, 1863. 31 "Knowing jroui great anxiety that the Eman- cipation Proclamation shall now be applied to certain parts of Virginia and Louisiana which were exempted from it last January, I state briefly what appear to me to be difficulties in the way of such a step. The original proclama- tion has no constitutional or legal justification, except as a military measure. The exemptions were made because the military necessity did not apply to the exempted localities. Nor does that necessity apply to them now any more than it did then. If I take the step, must I not do so without the argument of military necessity, and so without any argument except the one that I think the measure politically expedient and morally right? Would I not thus give up all footing upon the Constitution or Law? Would I not thus be in the boundless field of absolut- ism ?" Letter to Hon. Salmon P. Chase, September 2, 1863. "In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations." Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863. 32 "I wish all qualified voters in Maryland and elsewhere to have the undisturbed privilege of voting at elections; and neither my authority nor my name can be properly used to the contrary/* Letter to Thomas Swan, October 27, 1863. "Through life, I have endured a great deal of ridicule, without much malice; and I have received a great deal of kindness not quite free from ridicule/ ' Letter to James H. Hackett, November 2, 1863. "The brave men, living and dead, who strug- gled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." Excerpt from Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863. 33 "And you (Joseph) Medill, you are acting like a coward. You and your Tribune have had more influence than any other paper in the Northwest in making this war. You can influ- ence great masses and you cry to be spared at a moment when your cause is suffering." To Joseph Medill, 1864. "General Grant, the nation's appreciation of what you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to do in the existing struggle, are now presented with this commission, con- stituting you Lieutenant General in the army of the United States. With this high honor de- volves upon you also, a corresponding responsi- bility. As the country herein trusts you, so, un- der God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need to add that with what I here speak for the nation goes my own hearty personal concurrence/' To General Grant, March 9, 1864. "Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may be- come rich and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but 34 let him work diligently and build one for him- self, this, by example, assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built/' Reply to committee of the Workingmans Association of New York, March 21, 1864. "It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil admin- istration this oath even forbade me to practical- ly indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did under- stand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indis- pensable means, that government — that nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet pre- 35 serve the Constitution? By general law, life and limb must he protected, yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; hut a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might be- come lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should per- mit the wreck of government, country, and Con- stitution all together." Letter to O. G. Hodges, April 4, 1864. "I say again, if there is no military need of the Church building (Church at Memphis), leave it alone, neither putting any one in nor out of it, except anyone preaching or practic- ing treason, in which case lay hand upon him just as he were doing the same thing in any other building or in the streets or highways." Indorsement, May 13, 1864. "I do not allow myself to suppose that either the (Republican National) committte or the »6 (National Union) League have concluded to decide that I am either the greatest or best man in America, but rather they have concluded that it is not best to swap horses while crossing the river, and have concluded that I am not so poor a horse that they might not make a botch of it trying to swap." Replying to delegation from National Union League, June 9, 1864. "I happen, temporarily, to occupy the White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as any father's child has." Address to 166th Ohio Regiment, August 22, 1864. 'The preservation of our Union was not the avowed object for which the war was com- menced. It was commenced for precisely the reverse object — to destroy the Union." Letter to Isaac M. Schermerhorn, September 12, 1864. "While the inaugural address was being de- livered from this place four years ago, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the City, seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by nego- 37 tiation. Both parties depreciated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish and the war came." Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. The prayers of both could not be an- swered — that of neither has been answered Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. "I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, reside in Illinois, and now here, it is my duty to care equally for the good people of all the States. Speech to Indiana Regiment, March 17, 1865. "General Sheridan says: 'if the thing is pressed, I think Lee will surrender.' Let the thing be pressed/' To General Grant, April 7, 1865. On the evening of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, dying the next day. 39 COMPILED BY Edward J. Jacob 2316 Peoria Avb. Peoria, III. printed by Logan Printing Co. Peoria, III. presentation copy none POI sale Abraham Lincoln Said: November 20, I860, to April 7, 1865 Inc~ MANUFACTURERS = Syracuse K.Y. = — Stockton, Calif. = UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA 973 7L63RJ15A C001 ABRAHAM LINCOLN SAID JULY. 1834 TO NOV II 3 0112 031834481